


Release

by cordeliadelayne



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Happy Ending, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-22
Updated: 2015-09-22
Packaged: 2018-04-22 20:04:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4848689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Ministry has declared that Snape must be punished for his actions, no matter whose side he was really on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Release

**Author's Note:**

> Written for lore who gave the prompt "return to form". Originally posted to Livejournal in 2006.

Snape sat hunched up against the damp wall of the recently inaugurated Holding Cells in the Ministry of Magic. He could faintly hear the discussions going on around him but he had long chosen to block them out. Part of this was undoubtedly self-preservation, but equally this was due to the worrisome discovery that he did possess an active conscience after all.

“Severus Snape is a hero!” Those words certainly peaked his interest but he remained resolutely stationary.

“Snape’s a murderer and we all know it! We have witnesses. Witnesses!”

Snape closed his eyes; he had already heard this part of the proceedings enough to have it memorised. He would be hearing it all again soon enough.

“This is barbaric. Something out of the Dark Ages!” Snape couldn’t help smiling to himself as he imagined the stance that Hermione Granger had taken up, curls flying in every direction, righteous indignation etched across her Muggle features.

And then he heard the one voice that always made him look up; the one voice that sent his heart racing.

“Severus Snape was working for the Order of the Phoenix. For Dumbledore. I have the thoughts that Dumbledore left behind that prove it!” Gasps arose from the crowd, along with demands to see the evidence for themselves. Severus’ heart beat peaked. “You must let him go.”

“He killed Albus Dumbledore – he still needs to be punished...” And then the voices were drowned out by the protesters, getting louder and louder until Snape drifted into a fitful sleep.

===============

Harry Potter stood outside the silver box, waiting, rather impatiently, for the Keeper of the Keys to open the only door. Remus Lupin stood next to him, even more impatiently hopping from one foot to the other. Neither of them could understand exactly what was taking so long.

“Will you please hurry up?” Remus asked through gritted teeth. Harry looked at him through the corner of his eye; even during the final battle he didn’t think he’d seen Remus this tense.

The Keeper sighed and finally pulled open the door. Remus held his breath as the Keeper went into the box and began to pull something out.

Remus rushed forward to help him, much to the Keeper’s surprise, but Remus couldn’t stand by and let anyone else help Severus out of the prison he had been forced into for the past six months. No one had believed it when the judgement had come down, that Snape was to relive his life over and over as punishment for his numerous crimes. It would have been longer but the court had finally accepted the Order’s remonstrance’s that without his help Voldemort would never have been vanquished.

Severus was deathly pale and terribly still as Remus checked his pulse with his wand and tried to remember the instructions Madame Pomfrey had given him. Airway, breathing...something else he could never remember. But thankfully Severus was alive, that’s all that mattered.

_”I’ll wait for you...I promise...”_

“Wait for me?” Severus snapped. “Why would you wait for me?”

“Because I love you, you idiot. I always have. And if you weren’t so damned stubborn...”

“This is how you court someone, is it, Lupin, by insulting them? No wonder you’ve been single so long.”

“Court, Severus?”

“Shut up.”

Lupin smiled, leaned forward, and kissed Snape gently on the mouth, not caring that the whole courtroom was still milling around them, as officers began readying Snape’s punishment. Severus began to return the kiss and then felt his hands being pulled behind his back.

“Wait!” Lupin shouted.

“Stay out of this, werewolf,” one of the Aurors spat.

“Don’t talk to him like that,” Snape growled, pushing the man as effectively as he could, which wasn’t saying much.

“Severus...it’s fine.”

“No it isn’t,” Snape replied, but didn’t try to move again. Instead he waited patiently as the last of the preparations were made.

“It’s only six months and I’ll be standing right here when you come out.”

Snape snorted. “Six months for you...for me...” Snape swallowed back any vestige of fear. “For me it will be years upon years of anguish and hatred. Having to relive everything...”

Lupin lowered his eyes from Snape’s face, ashamed of himself even as he tried to think of some comforting words to ease the other man’s suffering. But they both knew there were none. Snape’s life was filled with unspeakable horrors that he had filed away to be safe from Voldemort’s probing, but Lupin wanted to make sure there was some good in there too.

“You know, it’s your whole life, not just the bad parts...”

Snape eyed the other man curiously. “My life has hardly been filled with joy, Lupin.”

“Maybe...but it will be,” and then, taking the guard and Snape by surprise, Lupin put his arms around Snape’s waist and pulled him into a ferocious kiss, pouring everything he couldn’t, wouldn’t, say into the feel of Snape’s lips against his own. “Never forget that I love you.”

Snape nodded quickly, before the Auror finally had enough and threw him into his cell.

“Severus, can you hear me?” Remus asked desperately, hitting at Snape’s face. Snape’s arm shot out so fast that Remus nearly fell over and he winced as sharp nails dug into him.

“You waited?” Snape croaked out.

“Of course, I waited, you big lump,” Remus smiled, kissing Severus all over his face.

Harry coughed politely in the background, his eyes drifting anywhere except where Remus and Severus were still lying on the floor. “We really should get going,” he said, staring up at the ceiling. Snape ineffectually glared at him as Remus helped him stand.

“Harry’s right, Severus.”

“Well I certainly haven’t missed hearing those words,” Snape muttered under his breath, trying to get his legs to remember how to work.

Harry smiled up at the other man. “I’ve missed you too, Snape.”

Remus laughed at the look of abject horror on Snape’s face. “Come on, we need to take you home.”

“Home?” Snape’s eyes lit up at that thought before he remembered to mask his expression.

“Yes, home. With me. If...if that’s all right with you?”

For a moment Harry held his breath, sure that Remus had made a terrible mistake.

“I...I would like that very much. Remus.”


End file.
